Man bites dog: Helicobacter in the new millennium.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K A Eaton.
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Feces-stained eggshells, diarrhea, and typhlitis were identified in two commercial laying flocks in Ohio. Hens with diarrhea had spirochetes in cecal lumina and crypts. On culture, the spirochetes were motile and non-hemolytic, did not produce indole, had 12 to 15 axial filaments, were 9.2 to 11.7 microns in length and 240 to 370 nm in diameter, and had a wavelength of 5.1 to 6.5 microns on transmission electron microscopy.
Necrotizing typhlocolitis was diagnosed in 13 juvenile common rheas (Rhea americana) from three separate of geographically isolated Ohio flocks, with mortality ranging from 25% to 80%. At postmortem examination, a diphtheritic membrane covered ulcerated cecal mucosa. Histologically, cecal sections showed necrosis and granulomatous-to-suppurative inflammation that extended into the submucosa and often surrounded large eosinophilic colonies of bacteria. Warthin-Starry staining showed these colonies to be composed of entangled spirochetes that invaded the submucosa and frequently were present transmurally. Similar organisms were identified by Warthin-Starry staining in the cecum of a juvenile rhea from a fourth flock that histologically had mild lymphocytic typhlitis. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy demonstrated the presence of a spirochete in the ceca. Anaerobic culture yielded a gram-negative, beta-hemolytic spirochete. Coccidia, histomonads, and Salmonella spp. were consistently absent.
Ceca from greater or common rheas (Rhea americana) with gastrointestinal disease were collected from diagnostic labs and avian pathologists across the United States. The ceca were evaluated for the presence of spirochetes and necrosis using hematoxylin and eosin stain or Warthin-Starry silver-stained tissue sections and anaerobic culture. Spirochete-associated necrotizing typhlitis was documented in 11 states. Most cases were reported in the summer and fall and occurred in rheas less than 5 mo of age. Spirochetes isolated from ceca with necrosis were either strongly or weakly beta-hemolytic. All spirochetes isolated from ceca without necrosis were weakly beta-hemolytic. Rheas might be host to both pathogenic and nonpathogenic spirochetes.